6 Possible Actors for Ant-Man

Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man is perhaps the most mysterious installment in the whole of Marvel’s future roster. In development since at least 2010 and currently due out November 6th, 2015, so little is known about the film that it doesn’t even merit its own Wikipedia entry.

Though it would seem to be spearheading Marvel’s Phase Three, no announcement has yet be made about the casting of the film’s protagonist, the eponymous Ant-Man, whose ability to change size and mass at will doesn’t necessarily suggest a place in the first tier of super-powered individuals but should provide plenty of scope for some imaginative fight sequences, as the leaked ComicCon test footage suggests.

Long-time Wright collaborator Simon Pegg (who worked with the director in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) has been rumored for the part, but, while he seems like an intriguing choice, he’s not necessarily who we at AP2HYC would cast.

Though there’s definitely a comic element to the role of Ant-Man, whether Marvel chooses to go with Henry Pym or Scott Lang incarnation, both characters have a definite undercurrent of darkness – Pym suffered a mental breakdown and struck his wife while Lang stole the Ant-Man suit in order to go on a crime spree. As such, with all due respect to who Wright does choose/has chosen, allow us to suggest the following:

6. Bradley Cooper

Let’s open the ballot with a recent Oscar nominee. Cooper has displayed a certain manic charm in films such as Silver Linings Playbookand Limitless, the latter of which suggests he can convincingly play genius. The Hangovermay have been his breakout, but that was very much an ensemble piece, as was his appearance as Faceman in Joe Carnahan’s A-Team.Cooper’s yet to host a tent-pole film, but he’s certainly got the box office, critical, and commercial credibility to do it.

5. Alan Tudyk

We’re not the first to suggest the offbeat, ginger-haired pilot of the Serenity as a possible candidate for Henry Pym/Scott Lang, mainly because he seems like such a natural fit. Though he’s best known for playing harmless fools (such as in 2001’s A Knight’s Tale, for instance), Tudyk’s role as the unstable Alpha in Dollhouse has shown an edgier side to him. The Joss Whedon connection aside, the only remaining question is to whether or not he can carry the action.